Sodium chloride and magnesium chloride solutions have been used for deicing of roads and roadway structures for many years. Sodium chloride is readily available and inexpensive. However, the use of sodium chloride has several disadvantages; it has an adverse effect on roadside vegetation and groundwater, and it severely corrodes roadside barriers, bridges and the like, as well as the vehicles that drive over them. This adds to the overall costs of using sodium chloride. Thus, a search has been ongoing for some time to replace sodium chloride as a deicer with a less corrosive material.
Other salts have been suggested, but either they are too expensive, unavailable in quantity, or they are also corrosive.
Calcium chloride is less corrosive than sodium chloride, but it is still corrosive to metals. The use of calcium chloride as a deicer composition is advantageous because it generates heat when it comes in contact with solidified water, such as snow and/or ice, further promoting deicing.
Various corrosion inhibitors have been tried for calcium chloride. For example the use of chromates as corrosion inhibitors for calcium chloride brine solutions is known; however, the use of chromates is being discouraged because they harm the environment. The use of nitrites such as sodium, calcium, potassium and the like, has also been suggested, but a high level of nitrites in calcium chloride is required as a corrosion inhibitor. Other known corrosion inhibitors include phosphates, borates, amines, molybdates, hydroquinone, gluconates and impure sugar sources such as molasses. However, none of them will inhibit corrosion to the required level.
Biomass to fuel processes typically use a physiochemical process to treat the biomass and to hydrolyze the sugar polymers in preparation for fermentation. A common drawback to these methods is the overall low yield and the presence of significant residual materials whether they are side streams of various process steps or residues remaining after the primary fermentive process has occurred. These side streams and residues represent a significant amount of material and its productive and value added reclamation is important for commercial viability of these processes.
Pentose based sugars constitute a significant portion of the lignocellulosic biomass. The lack of a fermentive organism that can convert these sugars exaggerates the issue of maximizing process yield and economics. A significant amount of residual materials, such as these pentose sugars, are produced in the lignocellulosic biomass to fuel process and must be disposed of at additional cost.